Fast summarized the mission of NASA’s planetary defense program succinctly: “find asteroids before they find us.” She noted that detecting these objects is inherently challenging. Near-Earth asteroids tend to travel in the same orbital plane as Earth, meaning they are often positioned in areas of the sky where conventional ground-based telescopes — which depend on reflected sunlight — struggle to detect them, especially if they are dark and absorb most incoming light.
To close that detection gap, NASA is developing the Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor, a dedicated space telescope designed to identify asteroids and comets by detecting their thermal signatures rather than relying solely on visible light. By observing infrared emissions, the spacecraft will be able to locate darker objects that current ground-based systems frequently miss.
However, the NEO Surveyor program has faced financial and scheduling challenges. A NASA Inspector General report published in 2025 found that funding constraints had pushed the mission’s projected launch date from 2026 to 2028. The baseline cost estimate has also risen significantly, increasing from approximately $1 billion to $1.6 billion.
